Igor Valeriiovych Kolomoisky is a Ukrainian businessman, head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration (2014 – 2015).
Place of Birth, Education
He was born on February 13, 1963 in the city of Dnipro.
He graduated from the Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute with a degree in metallurgical engineering.
Career
As a child, according to his own stories, he earned money by renting out glass containers.
After graduating from the Dnipropetrovsk Metallurgical Institute, he worked at the enterprise “Ukrenergochormet”, holding the position of an engineer of the metallurgical heat engineering workshop.
In the mid-1980s, he began to engage in entrepreneurial activities. Together with Oleksiy Martynov and Gennadiy Bogolyubov, who later became his business partners, he worked in the Fianit trade cooperative. After that, together with them, he founded the cooperative “Sentosa”.
Since 1990, they have been engaged in the resale of office equipment purchased in Moscow on the Dnipro market. This activity gradually grew into the creation of the industrial and financial group “Privat”. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kolomoisky, along with his partners, focused on trading in oil, ferroalloys, and consumer goods.
In 1992, Privat founded PrivatBank, through which the founders were able to acquire shares of large metallurgical enterprises. A few years later, the company began buying shares in the oil production company Ukrnafta.
Kolomoisky was also closely associated with Jewish organizations. In 1998, he became a member of the Board of Trustees of the Jewish community of Dnipropetrovsk (now Dnipro), in 2008 he headed the United Jewish Community of Ukraine, and in 2010 he took the post of President of the European Council of Jewish Communities.
Since 2009, the companies that were part of the Privat group owned 25% of the shares of Aerosvit Airlines, but later the carrier ceased operations due to bankruptcy.
In 2014, the then Acting President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov appointed Kolomoisky as the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration (RSA). A few months later, he publicly admitted that he had the citizenship of three countries – Ukraine, Israel and Cyprus.
In 2015, President Petro Poroshenko decided to dismiss him from the post of head of the regional state administration.
In 2015, Kolomoisky lost control of Ukrnafta, as the state received 50% + 1 share of the company. And already in 2016, the government decided to nationalize PrivatBank.
The businessman also owned the Dnipro football club, which ceased to exist in 2018 due to financial difficulties.
Kolomoisky was the leader of the political party “Ukrainian Union of Patriots” (“Ukrop”), financed its activities, and later, according to media reports, supported the party “For the Future” with money.
In 2022, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a decree depriving Kolomoisky of Ukrainian citizenship. A few months later, a decision was made to nationalize Ukrnafta.
Criminal Cases
Since 2023, he has been suspected of fraud, laundering funds obtained illegally, as well as embezzlement of more than UAH 9.2 billion from PrivatBank. In May 2024, he was announced another suspicion – of involvement in the organization of a contract killing.
Assets
As of 2023, Kolomoisky ranked 9th among the richest people in Ukraine according to NV.Business. His net worth was estimated at $632 million, although he was previously on the list of dollar billionaires.
Today, his name is associated with a number of companies and enterprises, including 1+1 Media, the Drohobych Oil Refinery, ferroalloy enterprises in Nikopol and Zaporizhzhia, as well as Pokrovsky and Marganets mining and processing plants.
In addition, Kolomoisky has influence on regional power companies in Poltava, Chernihiv, Sumy and Dnipro, owns the Dniproazot plant and the Borivazh, the Black Sea Fuel Terminal and the Illichivsk Sea Fishing Port. It is also associated with Ukraine International Airlines.
However, a significant part of the businessman’s assets is currently under arrest.
